the south side news Winter 2010-2011 issue 7 FREE Syracuse, NY Syracuse, www.mysouthsidestand.com Stand STAINED-GLASS ART BE A HOMEOWNER Brennan glass studio helps youth design and create windows nap group These seniors aren’t resting during the day. They’re on the go. Profiling Racial reach different findings about police reach different studies using two methods Two LIVING THE GOSPEL One of a few female pastors shares her passion for what she does INSIDE|WINTER The Stand | Winter 2010-2011 FOUNDER BUSINESS | Charles Garland shares his story of how he came to run his family’s Garland PROFESSOR Brothers Funeral Home, which was not his first career choice when he was younger. STEVE DAVIS the FEATURES | Meet Tony Wade, a postal worker who treats 100 or more families to holiday gift baskets around the South Side every year. DIRECTOR ASHLEY KANG FEATURES | Find out how seniors stay on the move by exercising, meditating, socializing and more through the Dunbar Association’s Neighborhood Advisory Program. BOARD OF DIRECTORS BUSINESS | Learn how women maintain their total image at Ma’Dear’s salon and spa, which Jackie Emery opened 15 years ago on South Avenue. CHARLES PIERCE-EL SCHOOL AND YOUTH | Share in the excitement of young people who designed and made SHANTEASHIA stained-glass windows as part of their after-school program at the Dunbar Center. HARRIS EL REGINALD CHURCH | The Rev. Colette Matthews, among the few female pastors in the country, has Stand A. SEIGLER led New Covenant Baptist Church for the past four years. Read all about her experiences. DEBORAH A. WILLIS JOHN A. YOUNG FEATURES | A group of longtime friends and a jar of Hungarian peppers. You’ll find them every Sunday night at Swallow’s Restaurant on South Avenue, a 25-year tradition. REPORTERS, EDITORS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS COMMUNITY | Want to own a home? On the South Side? The Syracuse Housing Authority STUDENTS AT THE is about to start building 50 new homes for low-income families to rent and then own. S.I. NEWHOUSE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS Cover photography shows Jamon Martin, a student at Clary Middle School, who created stained- COMMUNITY CORRESPONDENTS glass windows with other youth from the Dunbar Center. | Danielle Waugh, Staff Photo MIGUEL BALBUENA, AME DONKOR SPECIAL THANKS CALENDAR|WINTER DEAN LORRAINE BRANHAM, JOANNE CRANER, LINDA LITTLEJOHN, AMY FALKNER, MARGARET BUTLER, MICHELLE What: Syracuse Community Choir 25th What: Celebrate the Grand Opening of the South Weaver, JOEL KAPLAN, JASON Anniversary Concert Side Communication Center TORREANO, JEFF D’ANDRIA, When: 3:30 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 19, 2010 When: 3 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2011 STEPHEN MAHAN AND Where: Nottingham High School, 3100 E. Where: 2331 S. Salina St., Syracuse STEPHEN SHANER Genesee St., Syracuse Cost: Free and open to the public Cost: $10-$25 Sliding Scale at Door (children More details: Come and receive information CONTACT US younger than 12 are free) about the South Side Communication Center and SOUTH SIDE Newspaper Project More details: At the concert, the SCC will a guided tour. Refreshments will be served. This SOUTH SIDE Innovation CENTER announce the 2010 People’s Peace Award recipient event will also kick off the Southside Community 2610 S. SALINA ST., SUITE NO. 6 as community organizer Geneva Hayden for her Coalition’s Dollar Campaign to raise money to SyracUSE, NY 13205 dedication to community and her demonstration of help with operating expenses for the South Side OFFICE: (315) 443-8664 the power of an individual’s determination to effect Communication Center; donations appreciated. change. More Info.: Please contact Linda Littlejohn More Info.: To learn more, call (315) 428-8151 or at [email protected] or Shante Harris El at e-mail [email protected] [email protected] DISCLAIMER THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THE Stand ARE not NECESSARILY THOSE OF THE ENTIRE staff. THE Stand WELCOMES SUBMISSIONS from HOW TO BUY AN AD ALL MEMBERS OF SyracUSE’S SOUTH SIDE BUT retains THE RIGHT TO PUBLISH only If interested in running an ad, contact Ashley Kang to request a rate card and MATERIAL THE Stand DEEMS acceptable to discuss options by e-mailing [email protected] or by calling (315) 443-8664. THE PUblication’S editorial PURPOSE AND IN KEEPING WITH COMMUNITY standards. The Stand’s rate card can also be found online at www.mysouthsidestand.com www.mysouthsidestand.com LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR This winter issue of The Stand is our last for 2010. It has been a great year. UPCOMING Featured on the following pages are stories about how the community stepped up to continue a 12-year holiday tradition EVENT in the face of budget cuts; a profile of business owner Charles Garland, who maintains the family-run funeral home business; and a story about Jackie Emery and her Ma’Dear’s Total Image Body Salon and Day Spa. December Workshop This issue also features an update on the projects that Syracuse Housing Authority is pursuing to lower the number of “Finding the Writer Within” vacant properties in the area by building 50 new homes that community members can rent and then own. 11 a.m. to noon Saturday, Dec. 4 Our December workshop will be taught by returning volunteer and freelance writer Lynn Olcott. She will discuss how to develop ideas for columns and the nature of writing South Side Innovation Center, over time to a public readership. No workshop will be offered in January. 2610 S. Salina St. Our November multimedia workshop welcomed Betty Pearson, Dennis Conard, Mary Free and open to the public; Mathis, Brenda Muhammad, Miguel Balbuena, middle-school student Beijing Saleem no RSVP required and her father Kevin Saleem. Several participants worked together and produced a slide show of photos and audio providing coverage of the Community Forum on Youth Contact The Stand’s Director, Violence, which was held at the Mary Nelson Youth Center on Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010. Ashley Kang, with any The group did an amazing job. We’d like to thank them for spending the day with us, questions by e-mailing ashley@ and we also give special thanks to our volunteer facilitators Stephen Mahan and mysouthsidestand.com or Stephen Shaner. calling (315) 443-8664 In 2011, we have decided to change how our workshops are offered. We will provide a free journalistic instructional series for community members who want to become regular contributors and a few public offerings throughout the year. More details on LETTER TO future offerings will be shared in the February print issue. To inquire about registering THE EDITOR for our journalism series, please send an e-mail with your contact information and state your interest in writing or working with The Stand. Send those details to Greetings, [email protected] or call the office at (315) 443-8664. My son was participating in Ashley Kang the Syracuse City School’s Oratory Contest over the weekend. That’s where I ran across The Stand. I felt I had to take a moment to commend Ms. Kang and the rest of the staff on the COMMUNITY amazing publication. It’s PARTICIPATION informative, community focused, and easy to read. > Professor Steve Davis, left, and Professor Stephen Mah- an, work with Brenda Muham- You’ve got to get this out mad on a Soundslides project (laundromats, grocery during The Stand’s Multime- stores, barber shops, etc.) dia Workshop, held Saturday, so more people can enjoy Nov. 13, 2010. Participant it. Thanks for showing my Mary Mathis looks on in the neighborhood, the South background. The workshop Side, in a positive light. participants’ slide show can be seen on our website at Sincerely, www.mysouthsidestand.com. | Photo provided by Stephen Yolanda Flowers Shaner, a volunteer facilitator Submitted Nov. 15, 2010 during the workshop BUSINESS The Stand | Winter 2010-2011 FAMOUS AT REST AT GARLAND SIDE Funeral home assists South Side residents in burying loved ones FUNERALS Garland Brothers Funeral THE Home has handled the arrangements for several noteworthy people, ON according to Charles Garland. Police officer Wallie Howard Jr. Howard was an investigator with the Syracuse Police Department. He was shot and killed while on duty during an undercover drug deal Oct. 25, 1990. Jonny Gammage Gammage was the cousin of former NFL defensive end Ray Seals. He was stopped by Pittsburgh police while driving his cousin’s Jaguar on Oct. > Charles Garland, right, manager of Garland Brothers Funeral Home, carefully prepares to transport a body from Upstate Univer- 12, 1995. After being sity Hospital. He responds to “death calls” from hospitals or nursing homes at all hours, day or night. | Sierra Jiminez, Staff Photo placed in handcuffs, By | Sierra Jiminez “I called my family and told them I would help Gammage was beaten with Urban Affairs reporter flashlights by Pittsburgh them,” he said. “This was back in 1988. I had no inten- police officers. Autopsies Charles Garland found his calling as the tion of staying.” More than two decades later, Garland is the man- later showed Gammage manager of the family-run funeral home died from asphyxiation. ager of the family-owned business. Between Garland, harles Garland always wanted to be a doctor. He his cousin, and a select few hired employees, the funeral Aunt Jemima dreamt of the days he could perform surgeries home hums almost 24/7. and save lives. But when Garland was a child, The ministry never stops. The phone is always ring- The famous breakfast his future profession was already planned out for him. ing. Calls from the local hospitals and nursing homes, character’s real name Instead of going to summer camp like the average child or “death calls,” as Charles Garland refers to them, can was Anna Harrington.